Sarai / Sarah / Sara
Who was she?
2 & 3. Religious & Historic Significance of Matriarchs - for classroom teaching
How it can be applied in the classroom.
- Abraham’s step-sister / half sister
- Barren - Abraham's promise
- Sarah offers Abraham Hagar to bear a child (Gen 16:1)
- Sarah’s laughter, Genesis 21:1, naming her son "Isaac"
- Israel to come from Isaac, Ishmael sent away.
- Buried in the cave in Hebron (Gen 23)
- The tenuous life of a woman in the Old Testament, (Gen 12:12-13 and Gen 20:2)
- Sarah's well-being is threatened by her husband’s higher concern for his own welfare (Fewell & Gunn, 1993, pp. 74-75.)
- Jeansonne, 1990, p.27 – God’s more protective of Sarah in Gerar than Abraham as she will bear the sons of Israel.
Old Testament knowledge to interpret New Testament in class, and explain differences in society.
Student issues:
- Polygamy of Jacob with Rachel and Leah – Jewish view of Pre-Moses laws, not wrong
- Slaves given to husbands to procreate – discuss oppression today in world, link to Church and other documents on freedom and rights
- Female role of child-bearing for Israel in the Old Testament.
- Incestuous relationships - to ensure bloodlines.
- Safety of all - "She is my sister" - Gender roles then and now.
Knowledge for New Testament in class:
• Rachel, Rebekah and Sarah, were barren until God’s action, similar to Mary’s conception of Jesus
• Leah, the unloved mother figure, is the one from whom Joseph, Jesus’s father is descended.
1. Orientation
Strand:
Sub-Strand:
Old Testament and Christian Spiritual Writing and Wisdom.
Brisbane Catholic Education [BCE], Religion Curriculum P-12 [RCP-12] draws on the Catechism of the Catholic Church (Catholic Church, 2000).
Definitions & Terms
Patriarchs
Matriarchs
- The wives of patriarchs.
- The four founding mothers of the Jewish People, traditionally called 'Our Mother.... '
- Husbands of the matriarchs
- "The father and ruler of a family, tribe, or race in biblical history."
- "A name commonly applied to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."
(The New Encyclopedia of Judaism, 2002).
Servants v. Handmaidens
12 Abrahamic Tribes
Part II, ‘Handing on the Faith: Catechesis’, states in point 5:
- Hagar, Bilhah and Zilpah.
- Women who served the matriarchs and acted as concubines / child bearers
"Jacob's twelve sons become the ancestors of the twelve tribes of Israel."
(Williams, M.E., 1991, p.44).
(Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America, 1993).
“Catechesis is an education in the faith of children, young people and adults which includes especially the teaching of Christian doctrine imparted, generally speaking, in an organic and systematic way, with a view to initiating the hearers into the fullness of Christian life.”
OT Family Tree
Assignment
You can pick one of the people off of the family tree or any other character from the Old Testament.
Off Limits
Adam, Eve and Moses
We did these in class together, you are to choose somebody we have not discussed.
Matriarchs of Judaism
Rachel
Rebekah / Rebecca
Who was she?
How it can be applied in the classroom.
- Rachel has love but still yearns for children.
- Matthew 2:18 recall’s Rachel’s anguish weeping for Israel’s children.
- Mt 2:16 links the Jewish and Christian
worlds, Old
and New
Testaments.
- Despite Jacob’s love, Rachel yearns for children.
- For status she offers Bilhah to Jacob
- Rachel was made barren as Leah was unloved by Jacob.
- God remembers Rachel and she has two sons - Joseph (Gen 30:22) and Benjamin (Gen 35:18).
- Fewell and Gunn (1993, p. 77) describe Rachel as a female Jacob when she steals her father’s teraphim - parallel’s with Jacob stealing blessing.
- Rachel’s resting place is in the province of Benjamin, named after her son.
- Leaves her family and uses initiative when meeting Jacob (Gen 24:64)
- Raises two nations – Isaac’s (Israel) and Esau’s (the Edomites)
- “Mother” to Isaac after Sarah dies.
- REBEKAH – THE NEW EVE - makes decisions herself (Fewell & Gunn, 1993, p. 74)
- Has Jacob, her favourite, take his father Isaac’s blessing (Gen 27)
- First woman in the Hebrew bible where birth pains are mentioned (Fewell & Gunn, 1993, p. 74) – similar to Eve’s
- pains of birth for disobedience
- (Gen 3:16).
- Called the Mother of Israel (mother of Jacob) as Eve is the Mother of “all living” (Fewell & Gunn, 1993, p. 74)
- Rebekah’s nature to respond to questions about the role of women in patriarchal Judaism
- Rebekah’s dual roles – mother and decision maker – parallels with tasks of modern
- women.
- Isaac, like Abraham,
- pretends she is his
- sister for his own
safety - Gender roles
(Gen 26: 6)
'Elements of Judaism in the RE Curriculum'
Activity
References
By Karen Macintosh & Lucy Brindley
- Brenner, A. (2005). I AM... Biblical Women Tell Their Own Stories. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress.
- Brisbane Catholic Education. (2012). Religion Curriculum P-12. Retrieved July 9, 2013 from http://religioncurriculum.weebly.com.
- Bronner, L.L. (2004). Stories of Biblical Mothers: Maternal Power in the Hebrew Bible. Lanham, MD: University Press of America. ® Inc.
- Catholic Church. (2000). Catechism of the Catholic Church. http://www.christusrex.org/www1/CDHN/ccc.html.
- Deas, M. (1997). Rebecca at the well [Painting]. Retrieved from http://www.womeninthebible.net/paintings_rebecca_isaac.htm.
- Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. (1993). Genesis 1 (New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition). Retrieved from http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+1&version=NRSVCE
- Driscoll, J.F. (1912). Sara. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved July 10, 2013 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13468a.htm.
- Driscoll, J.F. (1911). Rachel. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved July 10, 2013 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12630a.htm.
- Fewell, D.N., & Gunn, D.M. (1993). Gender, Power & Promise: The Subject of the Bibles First Story. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press.
- Hardon Fr, J.A. (1999) Modern Catholic Dictionary. Retrieved July 10, 2013, from http://www.therealpresence.org/cgi-bin/getdefinition.pl.
- Jeansonne, S.P. (1990). The Women of Genesis: From Sarah to Potipher’s Wife. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress.
- Matriarchs. (2002). The New Encyclopedia of Judaism. Retrieved from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/nyupencyjud/matriarchs
- Rossetti, D.G. (1855). Dante’s Vision of Rachel and Leah [Painting]. Retrieved from http://www.artres.com/C.aspx?VP3=ViewBox_VPage&VBID=2UN365YKDVN&IT=ZoomImageTemplate01_VForm&IID=2UNTWAWR0WCU&PN=37&CT=Search&SF=0.
- Rudin, R. The four Jewish Matriarchs [painting]. Retrieved from http://www.gans.co.il/product.asp?prod_id=6054.
- Scholz, S. (2007). Introducing the Women’s Hebrew Bible. New York, NY: T&T Clark International.
- Steptién, P. (2012). Women of the Old Testament: Their Lives, Our Hope. Liguori, MO: Liguori Publications.
- Stömer, M. (17th. Century). Sarah Presenting Hagar to Lying Abraham [Painting]. Retrieved from http://www.photo.rmn.fr/cf/htm/CDocZ.aspx?&E=2C6NU0YLSW16&DT=ALB&Pass=&Total=19&Pic=12.
- Van den Eeckhout, G. (1642). Isaac Blessing Jacob [Painting]. Retrieved from http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/view?exhibitionId={D1B87848-B18D-49E9-8281-7E275E509CFA}&oid=110000706&pg=2&rpp=60&pos=91&ft=*.
- Williams, M.E. (Ed.). (1993). The Story Companion to the Bible: Old Testament Women (Vol. 4). Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press.
Lia / Leah
Who was she?
How it can be applied in the classroom.
- First-born, not favourite, “wrong wife”.
- Not treated well by those who should care– her father Laban tricks Jacob into marrying her rather than the wanted Rachel.
- Jacob does not love her so God enables her to have children and makes Rachel barren.
- Leah competes with Rachel for children – the purpose and prestige status of women in Israel.
- Jesus’s lineage through Joseph traces back to Leah through her son Judah (Septien, P., 2012, p 74).
- The parallels between Jacob and Esau, and Rachel and Leah - favouritism in families and/or expectations and competition between children regardless of gender.
- Reuben’s behavior – discussion on families or societies perpetuating past
issues, link to
world issues or
other world
religions.
link Old and New
Testament stories.